


The Phantom's Drum

by nocturne-of-forest (annathescavver)



Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time
Genre: Angst, Blood and Injury, Darkness, Fear, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-24
Updated: 2020-07-24
Packaged: 2021-03-04 23:34:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,383
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25494694
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/annathescavver/pseuds/nocturne-of-forest
Summary: In the bottom of the Shadow Temple, the Hero of Time finds himself face to face with the undead beast calling it home.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 12





	The Phantom's Drum

The door slammed shut behind him. Bars slid down over it with a sound like grinding metal. Bracing himself, Link stepped away from it and further into the room. Shadows greeted him, cold and thick and suffocating. Through them, he could see little but the hint of a cracked stone wall. He continued forward, hand holding tight to the sword he carried.

In the center of the floor there was an opening. Feeling a sense of dread churning low in his stomach, Link approached it. To his dismay, he could see only more darkness. What was down there, he wasn’t sure, but that was the only way forward.

He had no choice. Returning the sword to its place on his back, he stepped back a few paces and prepared himself to jump. Not for the first time, Link felt doubt threatening to choke him. Here he was, somewhere deep beneath the ground in a harrowing, blood-soaked temple. Here he was, fighting against what felt like an unstoppable force of pure, calculating evil.

Shaking his head, he forced those thoughts back. He had to keep going.

Taking a deep breath, he ran forward and leapt.

The darkness closed around him as he fell. It was complete, as if he was falling through a nameless void. Or perhaps he no longer existed.

Link had no idea where he was or how far down the ground was. Was there even a ground at all?

Suddenly, he landed, rolling forward and biting back a cry of pain. Beneath his hands was a surface that felt like leather and glowed an eerie, sickly green. He stood, grimacing as sharp pain lanced up his legs, and looked around.

There was nothing to see. As far as he could tell, there was nothing around him. But he knew, based on experience and a sick feeling in his gut, he wasn’t alone.

There was a smell in the air, one so foul he found it difficult to breathe. It was acidic, poisonous, and it was mixed with the thick stench of decay. The temperature of the room, so suffocatingly hot he felt sweat running down his spine, only made it worse.

His ragged breathing was loud in the tense, oppressive silence. It was the only sound at first until another one, this one much louder, caused the breath to freeze in his throat.

It was like a heartbeat. A great, thundering heartbeat.

It was the very same heartbeat he’d been hearing all throughout the temple. It echoed in his ears, causing them to ache in time with every beat.

A rushing sound came out of the shadows to his left. He whirled towards it, but there was nothing there. His sweat was ice on his skin. He began to shiver, a cold feeling settling over him.

Several tense moments passed until something came down beside him. The force of it caused the ground to shake, throwing Link into the air like a child’s toy. He landed and the breath slammed out of his lungs, leaving him laying there choking and near panic.

He looked up to see his opponent. It was a hand, one larger than he. It was the hand of a giant, undead creature. The nails were chipped and bloody, the skin blistered and bruised. A second hand came down farther away and this one was missing a finger.

The hands weren’t the entire beast. There was a heavier, darker presence that lurked just above them. As he desperately searched the shadows, hand on his throat, Link could feel it bearing down on him.

Painfully, and with effort, Link picked himself up off the ground.

The hands began to strike the ground over and again, as if playing some kind of song. Beneath his feet, he felt the ground continue to shake and pitch and roll. It was difficult for him to keep his footing. Whatever he stood on, wherever it was, it wasn’t solid ground.

A flutter near his ear caught his attention. He turned to it, hoping for guidance.

“It’s the creature from the well,” Navi said with horror. “It must’ve been revived somehow. Look at it with the eye of truth!”

Fumbling at the pockets on his belt, Link retrieved the small, mirror-like item he’d found in the well. Holding it up, he peered through it and felt sick at what he saw.

But there was no time for squeamishness. The first hand came towards him. It swung low, knocking his feet out from under him. He rolled across the ground until he came to an edge and went over. One hand shot out, holding onto the edge so tight his knuckles were white.

He looked down and saw what looked like thick, sluggish water rippling below his feet. Bubbles worked their way up from its depths before popping and releasing that acidic smell from earlier. Thinking back to his fight with Volvagia, Link had no intention of falling into it.

Lifting his head, he noticed the great bands of rope circling the platform. It was then that he realized what it was.

It was a drum. A drum the beast kept playing and causing to spin.

Climbing back to his feet, Link traded the mirror for his bow. While one hand continued to play, the other rushed towards him. He dropped to one knee, narrowly avoiding it, and shot towards the other one. The hand evaded it, and the arrow quickly disappeared into the shadows.

Feeling the hairs on the back of his neck rise, Link rolled to the side and watched as the second hand went past him. From where he was crouched, he studied the movements of the two hands. As he did so, he cursed how shaky everything was.

There was little control Link could find over the fight. As the beast kept playing its horrid tune, he kept stumbling or outright falling to his knees.

But each time he did so, he got up again. He had to.

As the fight wore on, he fell less and less until he was jumping with each beat of the drum. He also recognized the pattern the hands followed. They would pound against the drum before coming at him, one followed closely by the other. After, they would hover in the air for a few precious heartbeats and then come together in an effort to grab him.

Utilizing this, Link went back on the offensive.

An arrow flew through the air, striking one hand and causing it to recoil, stunned. Link immediately spun around to find the other hand. It moved around him, fingers curled and ready to attack. Two arrows pierced its skin. A howling sound came from somewhere up above and Link flinched, hands going to his ears.

That darker presence approached him. It drew so near he could feel it in his bones.

Readying his sword, he peered through the Lens of Truth.

An eye of sorts stared at him. The eye was on the end of the beast’s neck, red in color and with what looked like ragged edges of flesh flailing around it.

Swallowing back his revulsion, Link swung at it.

The process was repeated several more times. The beast moved about as they fought, its body only visible via the Lens. Eventually, with its eye bleeding a dark, putrid material, it reared away from the drum. The hands kept moving as if still playing, only this time the song was greatly sped up. It fell against the drum a few moments later, body rotting away into thick, oily smoke.

When the smoke cleared, revealing the familiar blue light, Link collapsed to his hands and knees. He was tired. So tired. 

Panting, he closed his eyes to avoid looking at the blood - some of it his, much of it from the creature - smeared on his body. He ached down to his bones and yet he knew his job wasn’t done. That thought wrung a broken sound from his throat. This wasn’t the last trail he had to face, nor the main evil plaguing the land. As much as he wanted to rest, there was no time.

Bracing himself, he pulled himself to his feet. The light enveloped him, cold in its touch, and carried him out of the room.

**Author's Note:**

> I came up with the idea to write this one day and so I rushed to my computer to type up my thoughts. I hope you liked it!
> 
> Kudos and comments are always appreciated.
> 
> Seriously though, that boss battle was rough...


End file.
